Colors Speak Louder Than Words

Have you ever walked into a room and had a shift in mood, but you weren’t really sure why? Whether we realize it or not, the spaces that we inhabit have an immense impact on our psyche. And, while there are a vast number of factors that come into play, color serves as a major influence. Color not only sets the overall tone of a space, it affects how we feel in it.

One of the most interesting things about color is that we all process it differently - if nothing else, we know this from the infamous dress that went viral in 2015 (I was team white and gold) . However, studies have proven that color can actually trigger emotions and cause us to feel differently. Different hues can make us feel happy, energized, safe, and even hungry. Knowing this, color becomes a powerful tool when designing an interior. Each color has both positive and negative attributes associated with it and when designing your space it’s important to keep in mind how you want to feel in that space, but also how a specific color makes you feel.

So let’s dive in to some colors!

RED - is associated with passion, power, energy, fearlessness, strength, and excitement. However, it’s also associated with anger, aggression, and pain.

ORANGE - is the color of courage, confidence, friendliness, and innovation. Yet, it’s also known to represent immaturity, frustration, and sluggishness.

YELLOW - inspires optimism, warmth, creativity, happiness, and intellect. However, it’s also known for cowardice, anxiety, caution, and fear.

GREEN - symbolizes nature, freshness, health, prosperity, and hope, but it’s also associated with sickness, envy and stagnation.

BLUE - reinforces feelings of loyalty, dependability, trust, security, logic, and serenity. However, it can also be interpreted as cold, aloof, unfriendly, and emotionless.

PURPLE - is the color of wealth, luxury, sophistication, imagination, and wisdom. Yet, it’s also denotes extravagance, inferiority, and moodiness.

PINK - is associated with sensitivity, femininity, playfulness, compassion, and affection, but it’s also related to immaturity and physical weakness.

BROWN - reinforces feelings of earthiness, reliability, authenticity, seriousness, and support. However, it can also be perceived as humorless, heavy, and unsophisticated.

BLACK - is the color of sophistication, elegance, authority, and power. It’s also associated with evil, oppression, mourning, and menace.

GRAY - promotes feelings of timelessness, balance, strength, and intelligence. Yet, it’s also known to feel bland, depressing, and lacking in energy.

WHITE - symbolizes purity, cleanliness, freshness, clarity, and simplicity. However, it can also be perceived as sterile, cold, unfriendly, and empty.

So how do you pick what colors to use when designing your home?

There are three important factors to consider with color.

Hue - is the name of the color on the color spectrum, meaning red, orange, yellow, etc. A hue can be varied to produce a variety of colors.

Value - which is a measure of the relative lightness or darkness of the color. When we add black or white to a hue, it changes the value of the color.

Intensity - which is the saturation of a color.

Color effects people differently. Some people are attracted to bold, bright colors, whereas others re-energize through soft pastels or neutrals. Light and airy interiors are calming for some people, while others only want moody tones and endless amounts of drama. There really aren’t any rules as to what colors you can and cannot use in your home, because designing your home is about what feels right for you. The key to picking a palette for your interiors is to think about what kind of atmosphere you want to come home to and work with colors, values, and intensity levels that help create that mood in your home.